Friday, August 20, 2010

Noticed it's been 3 weeks since I've done any real climbing, and wondered, when the parts arrive if I'll be able to head for the mountains right away. So I'm trying to do some of the local smaller climbs for practice.

Today I headed down past Castello d'Aviano to the junction and turned on the road to Budoia. After the passaggio a livello I headed upslope to Dardago, then followed the road up Val d'Artugna. The lower part of the climb until the restaurant Il Rifugio is wide and mostly exposed to sun. Very humid today, and with the heat of exertion, sweat was pouring into my eyes. After a later restaurant, Il Chalet, there is a barrier (not locked) and the road becomes narrow and cloaked in shade.

I was curious how well I'd climb this in 39 x 26, which is bigger than my normal low gear. It wasn't bad, but I did have to stand for maybe a kilometer from the parco up to Il Rifugio. After that I settled down and climbed seated to 571 meters where the pavement ends.

The Trek rode great coming down through the switchbacks near the top- very stable. On the long steep straight stretch between Il Rifugio and the parco I spun out the 52 x 12 top gear. For some reason I remembered the Trek had the wobbles at speed, but no, it was rock steady with hands off the bars. Maybe it was me wobbling long ago and I blamed the bike?

The climb from the CRO back to my house is another couple of hundred meters, with some rolling bits adding to the total ascent. Felt great though.